Musinga, The Forgotten Anglophone Cameroon Dramatist

  Interviewed By Azore Opio

Victor Elame Musinga, Anglophone Cameroon's foremost pioneer playwright and dramatist, founder of the famous and pioneer theatre troupe in English-speaking Cameroon, the Musinga Drama Group, once decorated with the Cameroon National Order of Merit for promoting the nation's culture through drama.

He attributes his success to his quest to give a faithful representation of life as it is; as he sees it, showing a cross-section of life which interests him and tries to make his audience feel the emotions it has aroused in him.

With only secondary education and no formal training in theatre arts, Musinga, who has some sixty plays to his credit, also elaborates on the obstacles he encountered and overcame almost single-handedly and the corrupt practices and the lack of faithfulness in the promotion of Anglophone Cameroon drama and theatre, which has seen the art lose its popularity over the years.Excerpts:

The Post: Could you give us your bio-data, please?
Musinga: I am a Bafaw. I was born in Tiko in 1946. My father was the headmaster of Roman Catholic Primary School for 45 years. I started school in Tiko. Then at twelve, my father sent me to Sapele, Nigeria (Western Region) now Delta State. I spent two years there but communication with my family was so hard that my father brought me back to Cameroon and put me in St. Joseph's College, Sasse.

I wasn't too happy in Sasse. In less than a year, I was dismissed from the school. I was anxious to go back to Nigeria and that is exactly where my father sent me - this time to St. Paul's College Aba. That is where I completed my secondary education with the RSA certificate.

Did you go on to high school?

I couldn't continue with my education. I didn't have money. So I came back to Cameroon; Tiko where I loitered until I got bored and fed up. Then I took off to Victoria to look for a job. That was in the early sixties.

What kind of job were you looking for?

Just about anything; anything that could earn me money so that I could go back and redeem my certificate in Aba.

Did you find a job?

Sure, I did. I was just walking about and somebody I knew told me they might need a clerk at the then SONAC - West Cameroon Economic Services. O.S Ebanja, father of the late Chief John Ebanja, was working there in the statistics office under the Federal government.

I knew him. I went to him and he sent me to the director's office, Mr. Snapper. The typist was away on a month's leave. I told Snapper I was looking for a job and he said: "can you type?" I hesitated a bit and said yes. But I hadn't touched a typewriter in my life before. Only we used to see our clerks in Aba typing.

That was all. So Snapper scribbles on four pages of foolscap paper. Type this, he says and zooms off to Buea. Four hours later, Snapper gets back. I rush to his office and place the typed sheets on his desk. He scrutinises it and says very jovially. "You are hired, boy! You have just got yourself a job!" I was overwhelmed with joy.

How much was your pay package?

FCFA 8,950. But Snapper had told me that if had my certificate, I would receive FCFA 25.000. But did I have the certificate? I would save for it, I thought.

So, when did you get into drama?

I didn't go straight into it. I started by writing poems on the typewriter. I wrote a lot of poetry and they were published in the Cameroon Times of late Jerome Gwellem and Akoaya's Cameroon Outlook. But one day poetry stopped.

What actually inspired you to go into drama; did you do literature at school…had you acted before, say in school?

Nothing of the sort. I didn't do any literature. I have read absolutely nothing about theatre although I have read, and continue to read anything readable under the sun. At Aba, I used only to admire the members of the drama club whenever they were on stage. But I never acted, not once.

Which was your first play?

The Tragedy of Mr. No Balance. I wrote it between 1965-66

How did you arrive at the title?

First, when I was young, I was football crazy. I used to play football from the time school ended up to dusk. In fact, a father's friend had once warned me never to play football in the afternoon. I didn't listen. And soon I had my first dislocation of my right knee. I would dislocate the same knee five times.

That helped to change my mind. I began keeping goal. At Aba, they used to call me 'Soccer Blockade'. I was a goalkeeper for my school. So each time I missed my balance my friends would tease me: "man wey no get balance."

  When I started learning about the ills of bribery, the title Mr. No Balance Tastes Bribery came to my mind to depict what a civil servant working in Cameroon went through because of bribery. In fact, the Rt. Rev. Ni Nku Nyansako (PCC Moderator) helped to craft the final title.

How did you go about putting up your drama group?

When I finished writing Mr. No Balance, using names from the office, I approached my friends in the same office and told them about the play. They were excited. They said; let's act! And that is how I started.

When would you say you really came to the limelight?

In 1974 at the 1st Cameroon National Cultural Festival in Yaounde. All the provinces were to take part and the best cultural group would go for the FESTAC (World Black Art Festival) in 1977 in Lagos, Nigeria.

That is where preparation met with opportunity. Since the festival demanded that presentations bore the cultural aspects of the nation, The Trials of Ngowo fitted. One Elizabeth Akamangwa, a Grade II teacher acted the protagonist.

Together with Mrs. Patricia Elonge, we directed the play. When the competitions came, we scooped first place from sub-divisional to provincial level. But there was a small glitch that would have cost us the trip to Yaounde.

There was a group of indigenes who favoured Saker Baptist although we were the best. It was at this time that I started understanding favouritism and tribalism. At the same time, I began seeing myself in the limelight.

You seem to do everything; conceive, write, edit, cast, direct, act and manage the stage…

I do all those, but I also work with some people like Dr. Henry Jick of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Buea. He is my final editor and critique.

With over forty years of drama and theatre experience and sixty plays all performed either on stage or radio, what would you say has happened to Cameroon Anglophone drama and theatre?

It seems dead. First, Cameroonians generally have not grown in the culture of theatre; theirs is a primitive society in the world of entertainment. They do not know how to relax with theatre if they are not drinking or watching football.

Second, most people who ventured into theatre did it for money, not for the love of theatre. The failure of Anglophone Cameroon theatre is rooted in the greed for money. For example, theatre groups conceived Musinga to be making billions. Then they rushed into matters, their chief motivation to make billions immediately.

Like Efon's Dream Theatre, which he founded in Victoria - six months later, the members came to me and asked, "have you seen Efon?" I countered, "where?" The man had vanished with the members' registration fee. The other one is the Flame Players and many others.

Whenever they fail, they rush to me: "Musinga, how do you do these things? How do you get your audience? Do write a prescription on how to do production…" Anglophone Cameroon theatre has also slowed down because government is not interested; it is not hot in encouraging it for fear that if it elevates Anglophone dramatists, they would expose their scandals.

It stifles theatre technically by making access to resources difficult if not impossible. Another weakness is that nobody sponsors an artist is Cameroon because they don't see any profits emanating from that activity. But they sponsor football because there is much to reap from it.

They also sponsor other activities that interest government so that they can be exempted from certain taxes. Besides, there are no big Anglophone business and businessmen who could sponsor theatre. SONARA is a Francophone business. I remember we applied for funding up to FCFA 2.000.000.

SONARA shamelessly gave us only FCFA 200.000, yet a Francophone group from Douala received FCFA 3.500.000. You see what I mean? Then there are people in authority. They are not helpful. When Fr. George Nkeze was principal of St. Joseph's College, Sasse, he invited me to develop a drama club for the school. I did it.

What about the TV, don't you think it adversely affected theatre in Cameroon?

Oh, CRTV failed Cameroonians. They withdrew from drama expecting entertainment on TV, but how many Cameroonian films has CRTV screened? Then STV and other TV channels zoomed in along with Nigerian films that further punctured the idea of getting drama into motion.

It is said in some quarters that reunification cut off Anglophone Cameroon from the rest of the English-speaking world and, that this may have affected the development of theatre in the region.

Nonsense! Anglophone Cameroon was initiated into real drama in mission schools and churches such as Sasse, CPC Bali, the Catholic Church and the Baptist Church, whereas Francophone Cameroonians were introduced only to comic strips; to make them laugh at themselves.

Recently, theatre was born again at the University of Buea, after a decade of inactivity. Do you think it will grow into a formidable institution for entertainment and education?

The success is not resounding as I had expected. The University is not fully sponsoring theatre; it seems reluctant, unwilling.

What would you advise to get drama and theatre back into motion in Anglophone Cameroon?

Drama and theatre can only kick off in institutions of learning and spill over to the public. Without that, there is no hope.

Would you say you have succeeded in your dream of implanting theatre in Cameroon?

Not yet. I am still working on that. I still want to awaken Anglophone Cameroonians to the world of theatre for them to live a comfortable and inspiring life.   

Comments

[curious]

I am fasinated by this gentleman's influence on Cameroonian culture. Any biographies or autobiographies available?

[MAC DAVIS NGWA]

I consider Victor Musinga to be the greatest dramatist to come out of Cameroon

[MAC DAVIS NGWA]

I started watching Plays by Musinga Drama Group in the late 1970s at French Cultural Centre, Buea. By late 1989, I became a member of the group. I was a member till I left Cameroon to Study in Nigeria around 1993.
I always saw Musinga as a genius. All his plays teach a great lesson about life. I just wish a TV station or Movie House can transform his plays into movies. Victor Elame Musinga is a legend